lost in whirlpools is where you'll find me

Sakura didn't exactly know what to expect from an ANBU suddenly appearing in her nice secluded training area in the middle of the day, but demanding to know Naruto's whereabouts wasn't exactly in her top ten guesses.

It occurred to her, somewhat distantly in her mind, that she probably should've had a bigger reaction to having a shinobi of one of the highest positions in the village barge into her training session, but with all the racket that happened during her chuunin exam -and after - Sakura couldn't muster up anything more than annoyance for having her training interrupted.

Barge wasn't the correct word either, as it seemed to her that the ANBU simply spawned into thin air, right into the path of the heavy punch she landed into the earth beneath her, causing it to minutely tremble and cracks to appear, much to her satisfaction.

"ANBU-san! How can I help you?" Sakura forced some cheer into her voice. She really did not want to see such a high ranking shinobi so soon after Sasuke had been attacked, twice. It only got her anxious that he'd been targeted again.

The ANBU didn't show any signs of disturbance from her previous attack and simply inquired about Naruto - of all people - while carefully sidestepping the small hole she'd punched into the ground, where they had stood only a second before.

ANBU really are elite ninja, so cool! Despite her worries, Sakura couldn't help but gush.

"Naruto? I saw him this morning, we had team training. Not that Kakashi-sensei bothered showing up anyways," Sakura complained.

She hadn't been expecting any platitudes from the shinobi, certainly not from one as elite an ANBU, but there had been an unexpected reaction. Nothing major, but Sakura had spent the better part of the last 4 months desperately decoding Kakashi-sensei's closed off body language, and she doubted whatever super secret ANBU training this shinobi received could top the general emotional constipation her sensei was capable of.

So when the ANBU gave a slight twitch, the barest hint of tense shoulders, Sakura had already honed on them like a hawk, catalogued, and revised them. When every piece of information needed a battle - both verbal and nonverbal- in order to pry them out of Kakashi-sensei's deadlocked hands, Sakura knew better than to dismiss any signs of weakness. 

She almost felt bad for the ANBU, he definitely didn't mean to give anything away, but unfortunately for him Sakura has become a master in Adult Avoidance, a connoisseur in body movement of a frame that that stands hanged on the wall. The ANBU wants to her to focus on the painting, but she knows now to look at the skeleton surrounding it. It makes her sound cool and hardened, but in reality all it makes her is able to judge if Kakashi-sensei is actually giving them advice or just playing with them like they're a particularly entertaining swarm of fleas. 

And well, her interest was peaked. An ANBU agent looking for Naruto? An orphan who had as much as political importance as her; a civilian born kunoichi? And her sensei was somehow part of this? She had to get to the bottom of this.

"Ah, but if you're gonna look for him, he's probably in one of the training grounds near the old Senju Compound. He messes around with fuinjutsu with Hinata-chan after training,"

A bit of a misdirection, nothing she said was incorrect, but everyone knows the old Senju Compound is several acres big. Sakura knew exactly where Naruto and Hinata-chan were, but she really needed some time to snoop before Naruto got to the Tower.

If the ANBU was confused as to why two genin - one being the Hyuuga Heiress - were messing around with fuinjutus, a notoriously dangerous art, completely unsupervised, they didn't show it. Instead, the shinobi simply nodded towards Sakura and disappeared with a whirl of leaves.

Shunshin. Sakura has got to learn that, she'll annoy the technique out of Kakashi-sensei. Maybe it'll even impress Sasuke!

But that was a plan for another day, today Sakura will indulge her curiosity (read: nosiness) and unravel this ANBU-Naruto chase mystery. Obviously she won't be able to tail the ANBU, Sakura was nowhere near that level. But, whatever the ANBU wanted from Naruto, they wanted him in person; if it was a message, Sakura could've received and delivered it. After all, ANBU were way too high ranked to play messenger.

So it's probably a summon! From the Hokage!

Sakura grinned as she spun around in the direction of the Hokage Tower, then reconsidered, and headed towards the hospital instead, a plan falling in place in her head.

She wasn't deluded enough to think she could sneak into the Hokage's Office, a place that was arguably the most guarded in all of Konoha, but she has other ways. A kunoichi must always be prepared after all! 

But she had to be smart about this, having a great plan won't be enough if she's lacking the skills needed to execute it. Luckily she knew just the jutsu - and the person - to rope into her plans.

The way up the the Hokage Tower would undoubtedly be riddled with shinobi on high alert after the failed invasion, plus whatever weird traps had built up over the years. But that was fine, because Sakura wasn't planning on using the stairs like some boring person.

Shinobi flew into the Hokage's Office all the time, so it's obvious out of the question to try there. No, the answer lies in a dusty red book Sakura had poured over countless nights but haven't managed to finish half of yet, a tiny little thing written by what must've been Konoha's biggest Founding Era infrastructure nerd. It was barely 50 pages long in appearance, but the seals etched into its leather front somehow allowed it to hold thousands of pages, all detailing the mechanisms used in building what now was the Hidden Village of the Leaf, but more importantly - tons of secret passages. And the occasional fuuinjutsu instruction, but Sakura didn't particularly care for those and usually copied them off with non-activated ink to Naruto, citing some book as her source. It got Naruto off her back and onto Hinata-chan's, who had the fattest crush ever on him - which was unfathomable to Sakura, but at least she was having fun too. 

As to how Sakura has gotten possession of such a dangerous book (dangerous in the wrong hands, but she was a loyal leaf nin so no harm really) was simple.

Pure dumb luck. Sakura had been reading up on chakra theory in the library one night and, when realizing the sun was setting and her mom was gonna kill her, rushed to cram all her notes in her bag and return all her books to their shelves.

In her haste to get home before her mom decides she's been out long enough to deserve smack with her wooden spoon, she almost ran straight into the harried-looking librarian. An old woman with a prosthetic leg and well-versed in a wind jutsu that sent sharp gusts in your face if you dared to talk too loud. Sakura had wanted to be her when she grew up.

Some kids say she's an ex-ANBU, and up until recently she was convinced of that too.

At the time, the librarian didn't spare her a glance, stomping past and almost on Sakura in her haste. Sakura had huffed in indignation, then noticed that the librarian had dropped a small, inconspicuous notebook from the massive pile in her hand.

Sakura had picked it up, but by the time she had turned around to call out, the librarian had already disappeared around the corner.

Sakura had tittered, torn between rushing home to avoid her mom's scolding, and chasing after the librarian. Her fear of her mother won, and she simply tucked the little red book into her bag and dashed off.

Tomorrow, she had promised herself, I'll give it back tomorrow.

But that never happened. The librarian mysteriously quit the very next day, a young man with smooth skin taking her place. He was a weird guy, always with a fake smile and oddly observant eyes.

Sakura always felt like she was under a microscope when she asked him a question, it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

The little red book was hidden in the hollow part of the sakura tree in their backyard, Sakura's worst secret at the time. She had spent nights tossing and turning, scared to death that the new librarian was gonna realize she took out a book without checking with the librarian AND without returning it well after the return policy? Sakura couldn't live with the guilt.

One day, she had made up her mind and decided to return it, after three long weeks of self agonizing and sleepless nights.

She had hung her head, marched towards the tree, and picked out the little book with purpose. This tiny book was the reason for all her grief, and she didn't even know what it was about!

That thought had been her downfall, and Sakura couldn't stop the itch, to just take a peek.

She had already almost stolen the book, what harm could a little peek do?

Sakura never ended up returning the book, since one peek turned into a page, then a chapter, then she curled under the tree, ripping through the pages.

So many secret! So many passages and building and construction! Sakura never knew Konoha's early days relied on the Uchiha to this extent!

She had almost forgotten the book was in fact stolen, and not her own possession, when she caught a glimpse of a poster in the library, urging readers to return a number of specific books to the library. Sakura had recognized one of the serial codes as her book, and had guiltily asked the weird librarian about the announcement.

The librarian had smiled that unsettling smile at her, and simply told her that some books get outdated when they're too old, and needed to be disposed of.

Sakura had nodded and walked off, but inwardly was happy she swiped the book from the library. It was too interesting to throw away, even if it was outdated! She had to keep the book a secret, or she'll never be able to read to the end.

She was too invested in the author's little notes in the margins, detailing his many feuds with one of the Uchiha representatives. Most of the time she agreed with the author, but sometimes they took it too far.

That's why she didn't breathe a word about it to Sasuke when she sought him out, just passed it off some random piece of knowledge she read in an obscure book once. Her reputation as a bookworm is her saving grace really.

"It's totally fail proof," Sakura proudly laid out her plan, undeterred by the disdainful look Sasuke was currently sending her way.

She needed his cooperation, since she couldn't spot traps as well as he could with his Sharingan. So maybe convincing her teammate to go on a chakra-intensive self proclaimed mission right after being attacked wasn't the brightest idea, but Sakura saw that she had Sasuke's attention, and more importantly - his interest.

And in truth, Sakura had been looking for something to distract him ever since his brother had attacked both him and Kakashi-sensei; he'd been out of sorts for days and this is just the perfect amount of serious and silly to keep his mind off his homocidal crazy brother.

"And how do you propose we get up the Hokage Tower?" Sasuke's lip curled in dissatisfaction, gesturing stiffly to his slightly shaking frame, but Sakura had expected all of these questions and more.

"Easy! I'll carry you!" At Sasuke's incredulous look, she hurried to elaborate, "Y'know! By chakra! I'll carry you so you don't drain your chakra and walk us up, I'll use a genjutsu I read about that hides our chakra signature and make sure no one notices us, while you use your Sharingan and point out any traps that might be hidden in the passages!"

In truth, Sakura was proud of her plan. It was simple, easy to execute, and so damn stupid it might just work. Nobody used these passages in years, as according to the author of her little red book, their use had even declined during the end of the process of building the rest of Konoha as a sign of trust.

Sasuke must've thought the same, as he simply hn'd in response, to which an outsider must interpret as disinterest, but Sakura had also spent the better part of the last 4 months desperately decoding Sasuke's verbal tick, and this was definitely the rare Hn of Approval!  Sakura couldn't help but blush at the attention.

Focus girl! This isn't the time for your crush!

Of course, it didn't stop him from shredding her plan into pieces and pointing all the flaws, but still! Operation Convince Sasuke was complete! Now all they had to do was pull the plan off.